Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.

Pain narrows consciousness; pleasure blurs it.

When Medusa looks in the mirror, she sees the Lady of Sorrows.

My passions have never jumped out of the fireplace and set fire to the carpet.

Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth

The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path.

Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.

The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree.

'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'

Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed.

Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris.

This world is your mirror. Wherever you go, you see a reflection of your thoughts.

Though we do live once but can last forever.

The real heroes are those ones who are forgotten, forsaken and remain the nameless ones, in the history of time.

What we wear is the shell of who we are.

In terms of defending Jews, I'm a Jew.

One thing you should know about me is I never play to lose, Always aim high and rarely obey the rules.

If they played more blues, people would just get it - they try to hold it back but just about can't hold it back now because the blues is really going.

Working with Dario [Argento] was a lot of fun. He's a larger-than-life character, and with an Italian accent.

I don't think it's a mistake to put every great idea into the first movie, because I've always said there won't be a second movie if you go 'we'll hold back these ideas for another one.

How can we expect novelists to be moral, when their trade forces them to treat every end they meet as no more than an imperfect means to a novel?